I've been trying to get some of the reviews approved, since I KNOW it's annoyed you guys that there's been so much delay in our review approval time. I apologize for that. However, as I've been trying to get some reviews up, I've been shocked by the grammar genocide that I've encountered. Because I am a lover of grammar, and it breaks my heart to see commas being abused and end marks mangled. So, I thought I'd just write up a few quick rules for our future review submissions:

1) An ellipsis consists of three periods. An ellipsis is used when you wish to indicate a pause. However, please, use them sparingly. If a period or an exclamation point can be used in the place of it, use it. Whatever you do, please, do NOT use more than three periods. If you say anything like "Well...........................................", your review will probably be deleted. Why? Because we hold our CAA reviews to high standards, and these standards involve grammatical accuracy. When you use 59 periods after the word "well," that just makes more work for the mod who corrects it. Plus, the overuse of the period puts us in a situation where the ellipsis looses its impact. Afterall, if you require 10 periods to indicate a pause, and, later in the review, you want an even LONGER pause, that will require the use of 12 periods. So forth and so on.

2) Please, don't use more than two or three exclamation marks. I know this is the internet and everyone overuses the exclamation point, but, being the Grammar fiends that we are, Gypsy and I will just cut those superfluous exclamation points anyways. Please, save us the trouble. One or two will be more than enough.

3) Capitalize the first word of every sentence. I know it's a simple rule, but you guys would be surprised how many reviews lack this grammatical nicety.

4) Please, capitalize the pronoun "I." I'm not going to explain this one. All I know is that if four more people submit reviews which feature phrases like "i loev this show!!!!!!", the planet will likely implode. Capitalize the word "I," people. Save the home planet.

5) I just thought of a really important point I'd like to accent concerning the objectionable language section of the review. When you're notating which objectionable words are in the series, please don't say "the b-word," because, as many of you might have considered, there's more than one objectionable word beginning with the letter "b." When you're going to detail language, please, just place an asterisk (*) in place of the place of the first vowel in the word (ex: H*ll, D*mn)

Now, I'll no doubt add rules as I read, but these cover the bases. Basically, if your review breaks all these rules, I'm going to cry. And then I'm going to delete your review. The mods are all too busy to rewrite the reviews and THEN approve them. Thank you so much! I hate being the voice of doom, but it had to be done.

Edit: Thank you W4J for pointing out those typos. They have been corrected. I will pay more careful attention to my own statements and reviews in the future.

Every year in Uganda, innumerable children simply. . . disappear. These children all stolen under the cover of darkness from their homes and impressed into the guerilla armies of the LRA [Lord's Resistance Army]. In the deserts of Uganda, they are forced to witness the mindless slaughter of other children until they themselves can do nothing but kill. Kill. These children, generally ranging from ages 5-12, are brainwashed into murdering in the name of the resistance and into stealing other children from their beds to suffer the same fate.

Because of this genocide of innocence, hundred and hundreds of children live every night sleeping in public places miles from their homes, because they know that if the do not-- they will disappear. They will become just another number in this genocide to which the international community has chosen to turn a blind eye. They will become, in affect, invisible-- Invisible Children.

But there are those who are trying to fight against this slaughter of Uganda's children. They fight to protect these "invisible children." Please, help them help a country full of children who know nothing by fear. Help save the innocence. For more information concerning how you can help and how you can get an incredible video about this horrific reality, visit the Invisible Children home page.

As CAA's self-proclaimed Grammar Ranger, I approve of this post. Well, excluding the parts that W4C pointed out. XD But yes, guys, for the sake of those of us who read these reviews (and have major OCD issues with grammar and spelling ), please brush up on your grammar before submitting your reviews! XD

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[color="PaleGreen"]Rushia: YOU ARE MY FAVORITE IGNORANT AMERICAN OF IRISH DECENT. I LOVE YOU AND YOUR POTATOES.[/color]

I'm just a bad editor^^ The process is just annoying, which is quite a big flaw with me proclaiming to be a writer. Yeah... really need to get in the habit^^ I also noticed that even with my Winter Garden review there were a few errors in it already and I'm thinking "oops, wish I had an edit button for it^^" Yes... I really have to get in the editing mood :/ *wonders if maybe I had one too many errors on my last review that hasn't gone through yet* At least I saved a copy and can always fix it up if I have to >_<

Not to be rude, but it's attitude like W4J that make me wish we would drop the review thing altogether. While I understand the irony of being able to point somthing like that out in her post...why? She makes 2 typos, If that was the average typo count of a typical submitted review...this thread would not be here. I dunno. It just really angers me, when I see the crap that our 2 review ladies go through. The impatience, the rudeness, and the all around immaturity is rather sickening. (And no, the latter part is not directed at a single member)

This is good to know if I'm ever going to write a review. I personally learned to write through observing other's writings. One question, if I notice a grammar mistake in a review, who should this be reported to?

We need a grammar check...Good thing Mac OS X Leopard will have it built-in which will work system wide. The only thing to make sure is that you learn from the mistake to avoid doing it again.

macguy wrote:This is good to know if I'm ever going to write a review. I personally learned to write through observing other's writings. One question, if I notice a grammar mistake in a review, who should this be reported to?

We need a grammar check...Good thing Mac OS X Leopard will have it built-in which will work system wide. The only thing to make sure is that you learn from the mistake to avoid doing it again.

Firefox 2.0's got a spell-checker, but it's not flawless. "Anime", "manga", "okay", "dialogue (which can really be spelled two ways)" and a few other words are all marked as "spelled incorrectly". XD

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[color="PaleGreen"]Rushia: YOU ARE MY FAVORITE IGNORANT AMERICAN OF IRISH DECENT. I LOVE YOU AND YOUR POTATOES.[/color]

*Sigh* Grammar, most maligned of subjects by mere neglect. I have to say, I greatly appreciate the work the two of you (Gypsy and Mangafanatic) put into this effort. Taking the time to check every review this site posts for grammar and spelling is a daunting task, but it does make a huge difference. I know that I, for one, find that grammatically correct reviews are not only easier to read and more professional, but the tone set by the effort the author (and often the editor, too!) has put into their work makes it much more likely that they will be taken seriously, and that even if people disagree, they will do so more respectfully. Or at least that's my take on the subject. And thanks again for all your hard work, I know that the quality reviews I read here were what drew me to the site in the first place.

"...cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you." - John Owen The Mortification of Sin

macguy wrote:One question, if I notice a grammar mistake in a review, who should this be reported to?

I am going to go out on a limb and answer "me." They're fairly busy with the reviews process overall, but I have access and it wouldn't be too much trouble to change an error or two.

macguy wrote:We need a grammar check...Good thing Mac OS X Leopard will have it built-in which will work system wide. The only thing to make sure is that you learn from the mistake to avoid doing it again.

I've yet to find an automated grammar checker that is suitable. With Word's, at best it notifies me of a few things I happened to overlook, but most of the time it just doesn't understand complex sentence structure and annoys me.

You should use "lose". I'm usually not much of a grammar Nazi, but I reckon this is the one thread that needs to be totally rid of mistakes to lead by example. Otherwise, excellent advice, Mangafanatic!

Locked for a couple of reasons, the first being its gravedug'd nature. Also, it's bringing up an unfriendly issue that was already addressed earlier, and doesn't need to be brought back to the surface.

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[color="PaleGreen"]Rushia: YOU ARE MY FAVORITE IGNORANT AMERICAN OF IRISH DECENT. I LOVE YOU AND YOUR POTATOES.[/color]